Fifteen || Ginema's Folly

Mint ran into Mira when she returned to town, and when she told Mira what she was intending to do the older woman offered to put together a small meal out of the leftovers from her own dinner the previous night, and without asking Mint's opinion on the matter created a second package for the boatman.

"He'll be gone just as long as you will, after all," she said, handing her both of the packed lunches. "Who did you find, exactly?"

"Guy named Rod," Mint said. "He's the one who got me over here in the first place."

"Rod's in town?" Mira asked. "I'll have to see him before he leaves again... Send him my regards, could you, Mint? Consider it payment for lunch."

"Yeah, sure."

At which point she headed right back out and made her way through the forest again, down the path, out to the field, and came to a halt.

She had been impressed the first time she had seen it, and seeing it again, she was still impressed. Sitting on the water was a vehicle that could loosely be described as a pontoon boat, in that the bulk of its forward weight had to be distributed by two pontoons, and that was about where the comparison ended. Or perhaps it could be called a supremely advanced kayak; the top of its profile was flat and low to the water, the bottom broad and flared outward, the seats set into individual depressions; the largest in the front, where all of the equipment rested, and two smaller passenger seats in the back.

But she only settled on pontoons and kayaks because there was very little else to compare it to. The vehicle was unique; sleek, red, its hull built entirely out of metal. On the front bow, just barely visible against the sun's glare against the water, were five points of light, glowing like embers and giving off a low and not unpleasant humming noise.

Rod had briefly described how the vehicle worked, when she had first been caught gaping at it; the points of light were actually cannon orbs, glass balls that had been thoroughly suffused with magical energy. The boat – or not-boat, or whatever it was – probably would not have been able to support its own weight very well otherwise, but the sorcerous drive system was designed to draw energy from the cannon orbs, using that to both propel itself through its impressive aft engines and to provide a small amount of lift, counteracting its weight and allowing it to float effortlessly on the water. It also helped in moving it off the ground; the furrow running from the cave out to the water was much shallower than it should have been, considering the size and weight of the thing.

Rod himself was standing nearby, making sure his fire pit was thoroughly doused, giving last instructions to Johnny Wolf. "If anybody tries to steal my weapons," he said, "bite them. Bite them and never stop."

"I think you're good, Rod," Mint called. She made her way down the path and approached him, and Rod stood up fully.

"You're ready?" he asked.

"I'm ready," she said, and held up one of the bags. "Present from Mira."

His face lit up, and he snapped the package from Mint with far too much enthusiasm.

"I haven't even gotten to say hello yet," he said, sighing. "She's too good to me."

"I don't doubt that," Mint said cheerfully, and stepped past Rod. "Now c'mon, the sooner we leave the sooner–"

"Hold on," Rod said. "Our other part of the deal."

Mint paused and looked at him. "You mean about your boat?"

"She is not a boat!" Rod stormed up to the hull of the vessel and threw his arms up. "This is an ACV, a machine from the time when magicians ruled the world. You won't find another like her in this lifetime. This!" And he spun to face her. "Is my baby! The Pulsar-inferno Typhoon Omega!"

He stood there like he was waiting for applause.

"Right, right," Mint said. "Scarlet Excellent Typhoon Gamma. Got it."

He lowered his arms. "Now you're messing with me."

"Sure am."

"You're lucky Mira sent you along with food or I'd toss you out," he grumbled. "Come on, let's go."

. .

Mint had experienced the power of the not-boat before, but coming back to it she was still impressed. She had ridden in other seafaring vessels before, and often, but the Pulsar-inferno Typhoon Omega, contrary to its unwieldy name, sliced through the ocean like a knife. She skirted over the waves with hardly a ripple for the passengers, her sides perfectly tuned to keep the ocean spray to a minimum, and other than being a smooth and dry ride she was fast. From what Mint had understood, booking a ride to Carona via regular channels would have gotten her there anywhere between three and five days, assuming no significant delays. Rod's ride, whatever he wanted to call it, had left at sunrise and arrived before sundown on the same day.

The island Mint wanted to get to was much closer than the shore of the mainland, and what probably would have been at least half a day's sailing turned into a breezy cruise. It took the better part of two hours, but at that rate Mint would probably be back in time to have a proper lunch.

The island she was gunning for was obvious on the approach; though many of the larger islands on the archipelago had appreciable tree life and foliage, Gamul Forest was immense and unusually tall. It might have been the fertility of the island – it was fairly close to the volcano – but Mint was willing to bet that, since a wizard had lived there, the nature of the forest might not have been entirely... natural.

Mint was sitting in the back seat of the vehicle, with Rod piloting up front, adjusting various knobs and dials and steering the craft. As they approached the island, he was starting to slow down, and the wind whipping past was no longer quite so intense. When Mint felt they had slowed enough, she started shouting up to the front. "East side!"

"Got it!" Rod called back, and he twisted the wheel, easing the ACV to the side. They skirted the edge of the island, Rod gently reducing their speed until the wind no longer roared and the sorcerous drive was reduced to a low purr. The vehicle glided easily over the water, up along the coast, until the island's edge dipped toward the water again and turned to pale, sandy beach. Mint checked her directions, recalled what Klaus had said, and raised her hand.

"We're here!"

Rod eased back on the accelerator until they drifted to a lazy stop. He adjusted a few more devices up front, pulled the steering wheel to the side, and the Pulsar-inferno Typhoon Omega eased over and slid across the sand. When she was mostly on land, he cut the power tot he sorcerous drive, and she settled into the sand with a dull crunch.

Mint wriggled out of the seat and vaulted over the edge of the hull, onto the beach. She made it a few paces away, stretching out her joints, and turned to face Rod.

"You hanging back?" she asked.

"I think you have it from here," he said. "Do whatever it is you need to do. I'll be waiting for you.." To make a point, he leaned back in the cockpit and tore open the bag lunch. Mint left him to his devices, turned toward the forest, and started walking.

Despite what Klaus had said about Ginema building his atelier in the thinner part of the woods, she found herself almost immediately drenched in shadow from the massive, towering canopy of the trees. She couldn't tell if this was the 'thin' part of the forest or not; it all looked so enormous that comparative comparison, especially while she was walking through it, was all but impossible.

Fortunately, she didn't need to worry about it. As her eyes adjusted to the daytime gloom, she saw something much brighter up ahead, a clearing where the sun shone through.

That has to be it, she thought, and started to walk just a little bit faster. This would be a cakewalk; enter the atelier, look for something magical, get out and get back to town. She would probably beat Rue back by a long shot– not that it was a competition, of course.

But she would still be faster.

She emerged into the clearing, drew in a deep breath, grinned to herself, and then released the whole thing in a hacking expulsion that made her feel like she had been punched in the gut.

"Oh no way," she moaned. "Come on, come on!"

The clearing was worse than empty.

The vast majority of open space was layered with neatly arranged bricks, spreading out in a pattern that suggested that, once upon a time, they had served as a floor, and that once upon a time had been a long, long time ago. A few sad little half-pillars jutted out, providing a skeleton of a support structure, and crumbling walls suggested what had once been rooms. But the whole tableau was scattered and broken; the floor stones were cracked and dirty, grass had growing green and strong through the grout and even through some of the stones, heavy vines choked the old memories of the walls. One of the pillars was even split in half, part of it still standing stone and plaster, the other torn away as a relatively young but still rather large tree erupted toward the sky.

Tentatively, Mint stepped forward, reaching out for the nearest pillar. She touched it, closed her eyes, felt outward for the twining of magical energy. Maybe it was just an old, crumbling building. Maybe the atelier was further in, standing perfect and pristine, and Ginema's part of the Prima Doll was sitting on a neat little pillow on a neat little pedestal just waiting for an ardent adventurer like herself to come retrieve it and put it to use, now that its original creator had croaked.

She knew it was foolish, wishful thinking before she even tried to see the lingering magic, but looking outward confirmed her suspicions; the area was alight with the memory of old spells, their edges frayed and tattered and unraveling or unwoven altogether. There was a great deal of magic here, or had once been; far too much to be a random settlement.

This was the atelier, all right. Or had been.

Mint ran her hand through her hair and took in a deep, calming breath. Okay, she told herself. So it looked like the whole thing had been annihilated. That didn't mean anything. Magician ateliers decayed over time, and got destroyed by outside forces, and she had seen enough collapsed ateliers to know that when a magician had something important they wanted to keep safe, they would hide it somewhere– hidden rooms or secret passages. Maybe under the floor.

She made her way to the middle of the atelier's remains and knelt down. She pressed her hand against the floor, closed her eyes, concentrated. She was searching for magic– it suffused the air around her, but she was looking for something that was still tightly woven together. She concentrated until it was almost a physical effort, feeling down and outward. She stayed like that for what felt like several minutes, and gave up only after the space behind her temples became home to a throbbing pain.

No good. Whatever she was looking for was gone.

She opened her eyes. Her vision was a little watery from the effort; she blinked several times to try and clear her vision, rubbed the rest of it away. That was a bust. She might actually have to search the forest now – not exactly a small scope – and that was assuming that whoever had destroyed the atelier hadn't taken whatever it was she was looking for.

Then she felt a hollow spot.

It was right on the periphery of concentration, a little area beneath the stone her retreating senses registered as unusually open. There was no magic there, which in itself was strange. A blackout zone?

Her heart pounded, and she scrambled forward on her hands and knees. It was just a few feet ahead, and as soon as she was on top of it, it seemed almost obvious. A two-by-two square of stones lay beneath her hands, the edges of them filed down a little more than the ones around them. The grass sprouting up between the stones obfuscated it somewhat, but she yanked out a few clumps of grass and sure enough, there was a groove on the edge of the stone. She worked her fingers into the opening and jiggled the stone; it was loose. She tried pulling up on it to yank it free. It moved under her assault, but even though it was loose, it was not coming free.

She brought one of the rings to her hand, suffused it with energy, and tapped it on top of the stone. The lingering magic sitting just beneath the rock knotted, and Mint tied the magic strand to the edge of the ring. Then, with another sharp yank backward, she snapped the ring back, commanded the earth to shift, and the stone came away. She did the same with the other three until they were all pulled free and packed earth beneath them was visible.

Then she got tired of using her hands, grasped the net of magic she had already created, and willed it upward. The dirt exploded out and away, sending a shower of compacted earth across the atelier floor. Beneath it was a layer of concrete, and in the middle of that concrete was a simple door– no spells, no puzzle locks, just an indentation and the cut edges of a little trap door. She yanked it open with surprisingly little resistance and peered inside. A dark box, very old, but also very clean. Magic had sealed it against the elements; whatever was inside was sure to be flawless.

She raised the ring and willed it to shine, and using that illumination she pressed herself closer to the opening, twisting this way and that to try and let in the light. It was a shallow depression, and she could see something inside– just one thing, and it wasn't moving. Experimentally, she reached in, caught its edge, and lifted it back out.

A book.

She snuffed the light on her ring, lay it next to her, and stared at the book. Leather-bound, a little ribbon on the side serving as a classy bookmark, and utterly unremarkable in every other way. She could tell straightaway that it was not what she was looking for; there was no innate magic in the book, it had been protected by the spells on its hiding place.

Still, it had been protected for a reason. She flipped it open.

At first she was disappointed, as she was met immediately with the curving, looping script that magicians had adopted. She had always been frustrated by magician script; it was a fabricated language, an over-complicated script and structure that was used as code to hide contents that were, when untangled, just archaic English. It had been done – so she had been told – so the magicians could be assured that their works would be unreadable by common man; magicians had gone to great lengths to make sure that, when all was said and done, it made absolutely no goddamn sense.

She was just about resolved to take it back to Klaus and have him translate it – it would be far easier to look through the book than look through the forest, after all – when she flipped ahead at random and realized that at some point along the way Ginema had apparently gotten tired of writing in the magician's script shifted to perfectly legible English.

She skimmed the book and saw that he switched between the two freely; some passages and notes Mint found utterly undecipherable, but most of the book seemed to actually be a personal diary. She went back to the beginning and started thumbing through, scanning the pages for anything interesting before moving on.

Most of it was inane, but there were a few passages that she started to zero in on.

About a third of the way through, Ginema started talking about Elroy and their working relationship. He mentioned taking his research out to Gamul Forest and building his atelier where nobody could bother him, except apparently somebody had bothered him because he made mention of a tribe of small humanoids that already lived out there. She continued scanning until she came upon another passage.

"I've found the ideal place to establish my atelier," it read (more or less; the grammar structure and word use was old, but Mint had enough experience rummaging through archaic text to understand it easily). "I've cleared land a short way off the main shoreline; far enough that nobody will be able to see my atelier, close enough that restoring my supplies will be easy. I've attempted to enlist the aid of the locals to help do the physical aspect of the building, but they don't seem particularly keen on my setting up on their land and have asked me – quite rudely – to leave. I will attempt to reason with them when I return with supplies.

Next page: "The language barrier is making cooperation more difficult than I had anticipated. However, I've deciphered most of their communication and am confident I can reach an agreement and enlist their aid."

And then two pages later: "Learned how to self-treat a spear wound today."

He went on. At some point he gave up reasoning with the locals and headed elsewhere, returning to the continent with another tribe – filched from a continent to the south, apparently – who were more willing to listen to reason. He bought their services to help built the atelier, and then after that was done paid them by giving them the forest, going so far as to refer to them as Gamulians. The other tribe disapproved of this, as they happened to still be living there. Ginema bowed out of the tribal politics and let them find a peaceable solution. The group he brought into the forest – the Gamulians - did so by slaughtering the tribe that had already lived there.

"Wow," Mint said. "This guy's kind of an ass."

She carried on.

He made note of Elroy's research; that Elroy had found the altar; that Elroy had realized it contained Valen's Relic; that Elroy had apparently decided the most efficient way of opening the seal was to forge a mechanical towheaded child because of course it was.

"He's given me specific instructions on the nature of the spells that must be woven," Ginema wrote. "This is highly delicate work and requires a bit of interpretation on my end, but Elroy, of course, knew I would be perfect for such fragile spellcraft. I've decided to weave the spells into a pair of earrings, for transfer to the doll when it is ready."

Earrings didn't strike her as the ideal accessory for a construct that was fashioned to look like a young boy, but, now that she was thinking of it, neither did a tiara. They must have just been having fun playing dress-up at some point. Mint couldn't help but wonder what the other spell component was that Rue was looking for and hoped it was ridiculous.

As she neared the end of the recorded diary, where the ribbon marked the final written page, the entries started to get interesting again.

"The Gamulians are acting up. I think they've heard of what we're after and want a piece of the prize."

"Actually I think they might just the prize period."

"I looked outside this morning and saw several Gamulian scouts watching the atelier. They weren't even trying to be subtle about it. They want me to know they're watching."

"I built a whale today."

Mint had to flip back to that page just to make sure she was reading it properly, and gave it another look.

"I built a whale today."

Yes, that is exactly what it said.

"The guardian has been programmed to protect the atelier. The tribe has already started to steer clear of the atelier. Things are working so well that I've also assigned the guardian to keep the earrings safe. Nobody will be able to retrieve them while it's watching over them. I truly am a genius."

"And full of yourself," Mint grumbled.

A few pages here and there, a few more notes, then:

"The Gamulians attempted to attack, but the guardian was far too powerful. Unfortunately, they had a major advantage in numbers and managed to deal some injury to the guardian. Fortunately, the guardian is properly equipped with self-recovery and will be right as rain within the hour. Spears to the head can't slow it down!"

The next page was loaded down with hasty scribbles, almost illegible:

"guardians programming bloc damaged by spearhead half of atelier collapsed earrings gone why did I make that stupid thing"

"You got me," Mint said.

"Sealed off as much as I can. guardian injured me when it fled I've healed what I can don't have the strength to fortify my defenses"

The ribbon was waiting on the other side of the page. Mint turned it over.

"I need food. I'm going to search the forest."

End.

She thumbed through the rest of the pages, seeing if Ginema had left any other notes or observations or maybe something that would actually be helpful, but the rest of the diary was blank. She slammed the book shut, looked at it for a moment, and then tossed it haphazardly back into the hole she had dragged it up from.

So the magician was a moron who almost got eaten by his own guardian. Fantastic.

But that gave her some context. The guardian had been looking over the earrings, and the earrings had disappeared when it went crazy. That meant that either the guardian or the Gamulians had stolen it. The guardian had been some kind of construct – she assumed it was the whale Ginema had built – so it wasn't likely to have taken the earrings itself, assuming it had even survived the last few hundred years, but the Gamulians might have. There was no guarantee they still had them, of course, but it was looking like her best bet.

So her best bet was the civilization that Klaus had explicitly warned her not to go near.

Also fantastic.

She stood up and looked into the trees. Probably not the best idea – definitely not the best idea – but what else was she going to do? Turn around, go home, shrug her shoulders? Sorry, Klaus, I was too chicken to go into the forest and look for a pair of earrings, but that's okay, I didn't need limitless power anyway!

Not likely.

She started off into the forest and was little ways beyond the tree line when a strange sound caught her ears.

Mint stopped, listening intently. It was an odd noise, faintly pulsing, faintly humming. It reminded her, bizarrely, of Rod's not-boat and the peculiar purr of its sorcerous drive, but it wasn't quite so concentrated. It was also accompanied by another sound, like the blades of a boat propeller lifted out of the water. She closed her eyes and listened as the noise grew louder, and then recognized that it was coming from behind her. From the atelier.

She turned.

Behind her, hovering over the shattered atelier, was some kind of stone construct, a hovering golem. Its central body was a thick disc laid on its side, with a smoothed down top and bottom. From this central disc came appendages; two massive, dangling arms, connected awkwardly to the sides, and a roughly cut piece attached to the front that was probably meant to function as some kind of head. From the back were two additional, shallow protrusions, both bearing a thick-bladed propeller, both alight with a pale orange aura.

For a moment, she wondered if that was the guardian Ginema had referred to. Then her eyes traveled just a little higher, and she gaped.

Standing on the back of the creature, her dark dress standing in striking contrast to platinum blonde hair, was Belle.

"You gotta be kidding me," Mint mumbled.

But she continued to watch, and as she watched she put together the rest of the image. Belle stood on the back of the hovering stone beast, directing its movements, and she was zeroing right in on where Mint had been only moments before. As Mint watched, Belle made a motion with her hand, and the stone beast started to sink, its broad hands reaching toward the ground. It caught itself and slowed its descent, settling gently on the ground. At another motion from Belle, the engines cut off and the beast fell silent, and Belle vaulted off its back and headed immediately for the diary.

She followed me, Mint realized. That snake followed me!

Belle must have been waiting for Mint to leave to take a look at the diary herself. Mint had half a mind to just leave her to it – the book was worthless, and Belle would have just as much of a problem searching through the forest to find the earrings – but then she looked over to the stone golem. The had no idea what it was supposed to be, but Belle was clearly using it for transportation. She would be able to cover much more ground on her weird hovering rock monster than Mint would just by walking.

So she needed to steal it.

Mint made her way back to the edge of the tree line and started walking, hugging the edge of the clearing but making sure she kept to the shadows. She didn't need to exercise much stealth; Belle was busying herself looking through the book. When Mint was sure she was sufficiently distracted, she slipped out of the cover of the trees and ran straight for the golem. She slowed down as she got near, half expecting it to react to her, but it did no such thing; it was lifeless without a pilot.

She moved up along its side reached out, working the tips of her fingers into the grooves along its arm. When she had a hold, she started pulling, working her way up the rocky appendage – foothold, handhold, other hand, other foot, easy enough – and it wasn't long before she had her hands on the top of its shoulder and she was pulling herself up and onto the flat of its back.

The back, she saw, was etched with runes and arrays. She crouched and kept herself low as she worked toward the middle of the machine's back, occasionally shooting a glance over the side of its body to see if Belle had noticed anything. Reassured, Mint finally settled in the middle of the thing's back and turned to face its head. She traced her hand along the array lines, across the runes. She could feel the magic coiled inside the thing, but when she tried to reach for it she couldn't quite grasp it– contained, then. Maybe the runes were a spell.

She tried that, following along the runes and whispering the syllables as they were write across the beast's back. She reached the end of the script, spoke the last, and steeled herself.

Nothing happened.

She waited a few more seconds, but the rock beast remained unmoving, oblivious to her presence. She thwacked it with her palm. She stood up and slammed her foot against its back. Still nothing.

"C'mon," she hissed. "How do you work?"

"It doesn't respond to half-wits."

Mint looked up and froze.

Belle hoisted herself up onto the creature's rock muzzle and balanced on its head, giving Mint a long, narrowed glare. "What, exactly, are you trying to accomplish?" she asked.

"I could ask you the same," Mint said sharply. "Are you stalking me?"

Belle snorted. "Like I'd get anywhere if I followed your example," she said.

"You got here, didn't you?"

"For all the good it's done." She held up her hand – and, with it, Ginema's diary – and waved it in the air. "This is less than useless. Although I imagine you're used to that."

Mint bristled. "What did you think you'd find here, then?"

"Something better than some moron's broken building," Belle said. "And somebody trying to steal the Hexagon."

"The Hexagon?"

"You know, the thing you're standing on?"

Mint looked down. "This isn't a hex–"

Something cracked against the side of her head. She staggered, tried to catch her balance, almost slipped off the edge of the creature. She barely righted herself in time to look up and see Belle stride back to the creature's center, picking up the book from where it had fallen.

"I didn't name it," Belle said simply. "And I'd like you to get off."

"Not likely, you old witch."

"Let me rephrase; you're getting off."

She raised her hand and then pulled down, trailing behind her a string of bright heat. Belle flicked her wrist and pointed at Mint, and the orbs of light followed, twisting around each other before leaping along the path she had directed.

Mint ducked back and down, but she was already right on the edge of the rock beast and there was simply no more room for her. Her foot slipped, she lost her purchase, and she went crashing down, arms flailing wildly to find something to grip. Her fingers dug into the thin grooves along its side, and she hung there, her legs dangling off the edge, her chest throbbing from how she had landed.

Belle walked up to her and knelt down. "Let go," she snapped. "It's not that far to fall."

Mint gritted her teeth and shook her head. "Not that easy," she growled.

So Belle lay down the book, reached to her belt, and unsheathed a short dagger. "You don't really want me to convince you," she said.

That was true.

Mint released her hold and fell, landing awkwardly on her feet. From above, she could hear the hum of the Hexagon powering up again, and saw the blaze of its engines ignite. She had to be fast.

She ran back toward its arm, which was slowly pulling away from the ground, and lunged. She caught the edge of the rocky surface and climbed a short way up. The Hexagon suddenly wrenched upward, and Mint tightened her grip and willed the wind to part around her. There wasn't sufficient time to make a proper spell, but it was enough that the sudden rush didn't push her off the Hexagon's arm, and when it stopped moving she continued her upward climb, until she crested over the Hexagon's shoulder and was staring at Belle's boots.

She wrapped one arm as best she could around the Hexagon's, used the other to grab one of her rings, and met Belle's eyes just as the older woman turned her focus away from keeping the Hexagon in the air and down to Mint.

Mint grinned and brought the ring up in front of her.

"You're kidding me," Belle said.

"Nope," Mint replied, and with a charge through the halo the air in front of her compressed, then exploded in a burst of gale force. Belle thrust her hand out and twisted the air directly before her, creating a rough barrier, but Mint was already yanking herself full onto the Hexagon's back and throwing herself bodily at Belle.

They hit the stone hide of the Hexagon, and the machine bucked, the front end tilting upward briefly before settling back the way it had been. The two women had slid part of the way toward the back, almost off the Hexagon entirely, before it managed to right itself.

"What the hell are you doing!" Belle yelled.

"I'm stealing your levitating golem thing," Mint said. "I thought that was obvious! Dang, age does do terrible things to the–"

Belle's fist met Mint's jaw, and Mint yelped and threw herself back, the coppery taste of blood filling her mouth from where she had bit her tongue. Belle was already back on her feet, bearing down on Mint, raising her arm again. Not spellcasting, though; in time with the motion, the Hexagon's arms folded up against the sides of its body, and the internal whine of its engines picked up. It bucked again, this time at Belle's command, and Mint had to flatten herself against the Hexagon's back to keep from being thrown.

She raised her head and looked over the side of the golem to see the trees starting to fall away. They were rising up now, and drifting a little to the right.

"I will throw you from this thing if you don't get off," Belle snarled.

"Sure, it's only a thirty foot drop, now," Mint said. "Let me get right on that!"

"Vermin are resilient," Belle said. "You'll survive."

Mint slowly crawled to her feet. The Hexagon was listing back and forth now, dipping and rising in a ragged pattern, and Mint wasn't exactly confident that she could keep her balance through it. Belle was having no trouble adjusting, but then she was used to riding it and it was probably her fault it was tilting the way it was, anyway.

"Get off!" she barked again.

Mint brought both of her rings to her hands and was trying to determine whether she should find a way to knock Belle free or keep herself firmly planted on the Hexagon's back, but before she'd come to a decision she realized that the edge of the trees were far too close. "Belle," she said. "We need to get higher."

"There is no we in this," Belle snapped. "Look, you seriously can't figure this out? Make an air cushion or something, you'll do fine, just–"

"Trees!"

Belle looked over her shoulder and, sure enough, there were trees.

She threw her arm out and the Hexagon tilted again, this time trying to change direction. Mint cracked the Dual Halos together and concentrated on the air pressure again, using it to suction herself to the top of the Hexagon. She wouldn't be able to move without breaking the spell, but at that moment moving seemed like an unnecessary luxury.

It was a good thing she did it, too; Belle overcompensated and tilted the Hexagon almost forty-five degrees, and it was only by virtue of her spell that Mint did not go sliding off to the ground again. Belle must have been doing something similar; she leaned into the angle, but did little else to keep herself from falling, and the Hexagon burst away and upward, swinging itself around in the opposite direction.

Mint wasn't going to fall, at least, but she was definitely starting to get sick.

"What are you doing, you crazy hag!" she yelled.

Belle fell to her knees, both palms against the Hexagon's back. "Something throwing it off," she said. "It isn't responding the way it's supposed to."

"Maybe you just can't drive."

"You wanna try this?"

Mint was quiet ready to volunteer when the Hexagon suddenly swung again, this time half-diving back toward the tree line. Belle raised her hands sharply, and the Hexagon tilted upward, trying to gain altitude.

"Hey, princess!" Belle shouted. "We need a boost!"

Mint concentrated on the space beneath the Hexagon and struck the Dual Halos again. The breeze changed course and intensity, turning itself into a powerful upward gale that caught the Hexagon and provided lift to its stone body, barely shoving it upward in time for it to clear the trees. Mint was rapidly realizing that it wasn't enough, though; there was something else vying for the right to manipulate the wind, and she was having difficulty fighting it down.

"We've got a problem," Mint said.

"Well it's good to see you've worked that out," Belle snapped. She looked up, peering over the side of the Hexagon and out across the canopy of the forest. "Something is disrupting the Hexagon's drive."

"And the wind," Mint said. She closed her eyes to concentrate, trying to keep them buffeted on her artificial updraft, but they were still drifting over the trees and it was becoming progressively more difficult to fight against the force that was – she could almost see it – dragging them further over the forest. Then she felt another disturbance, something arcing through her magic field, and she flattened herself against the Hexagon as a spear went whistling past them and the Hexagon itself, no longer aided by her magic, started to collapse.

The belly of the golem hit the canopy with a horrific cracking noise, tearing through branches and sending a torrent of leaves in its wake. Belle was shouting commands through the noise, and the Hexagon was trying to obey them, unfolding its arms and using its crude hands to try and catch the trees and slow their descent.

Mint kept herself flat against the Hexagon, re-structuring her standing spell to do so, and shot a glance back and forth as they fell through the trees. Their descent was violent but slow, in part due to Belle's orders to the Hexagon and in part because the increasingly powerful branches of the trees were harder to break through, and it gave Mint an opportunity to have a look around. There was more than branches and leaves passing them by.

There were wooden hutches, rope bridges, avenues of travel, platforms to rest on, walkways that spiraled around the tree trunks. She could see light within windows, small fires burning on tall torches, ropes and pulleys elaborately intertwined to help support the heavy structures.

And people, too. Short humanoids, probably not even half her height, cloaked in fur; the one she could identify the most of seemed to be wearing bear skins, the skulls brought over their heads and used as ersatz helmets. Many of them were watching the Hexagon and its occupants as it tried desperately to force itself to a stop. Many of those were holding spears.

Aiming spears.

Crap.

Mint focused and forced the magic outward, creating a rough barrier of whipping wind and captured twigs and leaves. The spears sailed through the air and were shattered by the barrier, which sent their remains flying away. Mint felt a little ripple of pride, and looked over her shoulder with every intention to gloat to Belle about her brilliant idea when the Hexagon came to an unexpected and powerful stop.

Mint, by fortune of already lying down on top of the Hexagon, didn't get too terribly rattled, although there was no denying that it had hurt and had completely broken her concentration on the shield. She looked over her shoulder and shot a glare at Belle. "What was that?"

"How the hell should I know?" she growled.

"You're driving this thing, how could you not know?"

Belle rose to her feet, shaking off the impact, and looked over the side of the Hexagon. "There's some kinda walkway here," she said. "Hexagon, up."

The engine whined, sputtered, and gave up. Belle stared at it for a moment, then jumped off the side and disappeared. Mint dispelled the magic that was keeping her attached to the Hexagon and looked up quickly. No more spears were heading in their direction, at least not from that direction, and she risked looking down to where Belle had gone.

Belle was examining the side of the Hexagon. A crack had formed on the side of its body, and she was running her hand across it, brow furrowed.

"That'll need to be fixed," she muttered, standing up. "But that's no reason it shouldn't be able to fly."

Mint considered her next action carefully. "This is totally your fault," she said.

Belle whipped around and snapped her hand out, hurling a small ball of fire up at Mint. Mint ducked back, and the fireball dissipated a few feet beyond her. "I am not in the mood for your bullshit right now," Belle said darkly. She cast a quick glance over her shoulder. "You're lucky. I need to find whatever's jamming the drive system and I won't have time to deal with you while I do it."

"Why not?" Mint said. She slid off the back of the Hexagon and landed next to Belle. The older woman shot her a glare, but went back to looking at the damage on the golem. Mint waited to be acknowledged again, but Belle was deep into whatever she was doing, and for some reason that left Mint deeply agitated. "I know why you're here."

"No you don't," Belle said. "I'm not entirely sure why I'm out here."

"Because you just followed me, is that it?"

Belle looked up and turned her attention fully upon Mint. "If I say 'yes', will it make you feel like a big girl?"

Mint ignored her. "You trying to scoop the treasure before I can, is that it? That what happened in Elroy's atelier, too?" Mint pushed off the Hexagon and took a few steps away from Belle. "I'd really like that tiara back, by the way."

"Not likely," Belle growled. "Even if it weren't a matter of principal, we got it back from the skull beast after you turned tail and ran."

"You really did it, huh?" Mint grinned. "I didn't think you had it in you!"

"And I'm glad you proved unequivocally that you don't," Belle said. She exhaled, mumbled a few choice words under her breath, and stood up. "Nothing internal. There must be some kind of interference."

"Earrings," Mint said suddenly.

Belle looked over her shoulder. "What?"

"I'm looking for earrings."

Belle leaned against the Hexagon. "I imagine there's a reason you're telling me this."

"Because a set of earrings in the middle of a big-ass forest like this isn't gonna be easy to find," Mint said. "But I figure if we both know what we're looking for and you happen to run across them, I can just find you later and beat them back out of you."

"How sporting."

"Win-win for me, far as I'm concerned."

"Whatever." Belle pushed off the Hexagon and started to walk down the path. Then she stopped, peering down the wooden walkways, and turned on her heel, starting a fast march in the opposite direction. She had to squeeze under part of the Hexagon to get there, but she persevered and slipped past to the other side of the walkway.

Mint wondered what the point of that was until she looked down the way she had been going again.

There was movement, loud and furious, shouts and calls and a growing rumble of footsteps. They were difficult to see in the woodland shadows, but their movement gave them away; a thick line of Gamulians were charging their way down one of the spiral stairways toward Mint, their voices coming to a screaming crescendo.

She whirled and ducked under the Hexagon herself, fully prepared to follow Belle, but had only just emerged from the other side when they slammed right back into each other. Belle managed to keep her footing, but Mint staggered back until she hit the Hexagon's arm, slightly dazed from the impact. She wasn't afforded enough time to recover when Belle suddenly grabbed her arm and was dragging her across the walk. "Come on," Belle hissed. "We need to get out of here!"

Mint's head was slowly clearing, and she was able to make a bit more sense out of the proceedings. "Woah, wait," she said. "What's happening?"

"Seems they didn't appreciate my landing the Hexagon in the middle of their tree village thing," Belle said. She yanked Mint around and then shoved her forward. "Get going!"

Mint staggered a few steps, found her footing, and started to run, Belle's heavy footfalls thudding away behind her. She could heard the Gamulians from behind, too, their words a jumble of unintelligible shouts, and decided that perhaps Belle had a decent idea.

Not decent enough, though. The women didn't know anything about the architecture or structure of the tree-village, while the Gamulians seemed to have built the whole thing for maximum trapping efficiency. Another flood of them was coming down the opposite end of the walkway, and when they made a turn onto a side-bridge a tree from behind them suddenly opened up, pouring out another wave of the small humanoids. When they got to the other side of the bridge their only possible avenue of retreat was impossibly clogged, which was very unfortunate as, waiting for them just a short distance down the path, was yet another gaggle of Gamulians.

"Magic them!" Belle shouted.

"You magic them!" Mint shouted back.

"I can't!"

"What do you mean you– oh."

Mint couldn't, either. Whatever had been resisting her when they were above the trees was now in full force down here; she could reach out and grasp the energy, but when she tried to manipulate it, the magic slipped out of her grasp or pulled away from her. It was a wonder she had managed to do any spellcraft on the way down. Three cheers for adrenaline.

Although adrenaline wasn't helping now. Whatever was disrupting her magic, it was far closer to them than before.

Mint and Belle came to a stop as the line of Gamulians lowered their spears and leveled them at just about eye height. Behind them, the thunder of their pursuers stopped and changed to shouts and jeers as the leaders of their side did the same.

And then it was a standoff. Mint and Belle were immobilized from both sides. Mint looked over the railing as best she could, but they were too high up. If she had magic at her disposal, she could cushion their fall and land them without significant damage – Belle had been right about that much – but then again, if she had magic, she could probably open a path through the Gamulians and not worry about throwing herself two storeys down to the forest floor.

The Gamulians did not seem to know what to do, either. There was chatter among their ranks, what sounded like confused conversation. Even those leveling the spears at the girls seemed to waver slightly; now that they were cornered, what came next?

Then, a single world.

"Chief."

The muttering was renewed, but this time with what sounded like affirmations. The repeated the word through the crowd, and there was a new bustling as another set of Gamulians came forward, bearing rope instead of spears.

"Great," Belle said. "Just great."

Mint was quiet. Her thoughts were racing now, but on a different track; escape had gone from implausible to undesirable. She had an idea.

"Don't fight it," Mint said.

Belle shot her a glare. "Are you crazy?"

The spears lowered and jabbed forward as the rope-bearers stepped closer, clearly warning the women not to move. The rope bearers got to work, grabbing Belle's hands and tying the rope around them. She resisted, but it was half-hearted; she was either curious about what Mint was thinking, or unwilling to risk having a spear shoved through her esophagus.

"Listen," Mint said. The Gamulians were tying her wrists together now, and she had to fight every instinct to kick the on in front of her right in the face. "They're taking us to the chief, right?"

Belle was wary about answering. "Right..."

"If the Gamulians have the earrings..."

"...then the leader of the tribe would be the one holding on to them." Belle exhaled through her teeth. "That almost makes sense."

"Thank you."

"Ah, but Mint."

"Yes?"

The rope bearers said something to the rest of the Gamulians. The tribe rose as one voice, doubtless agreeing with whatever was said, and then they started to surge backward, opening the path for the captives and their captors to walk.

"Even if the chief has the earrings," Belle said, "and even if we happen to get out of these ropes and take them, we still have to get through the rest of the tribe. And, as you seem to have forgotten, our magic is kind of gone."

Mint thought about that.

"You have no plan, do you?" Belle asked.

"Um," Mint replied.

Mint could almost hear Belle grinding her teeth.